Disruptive snowfall expected in Lesotho and South Africa this week

24 May 2021 [updated 1 June 2021]
By Staff Writer

Snow has fallen across Lesotho and in parts of South Africa since Monday night, and more is still expected for parts of Lesotho and South Africa between Tuesday and Thursday. Temperatures may drop as low as minus eight degrees in places, and Eskom have warned that load-shedding will likely last through the week due to the cold.

The South African Weather Service has warned that disruptive snowfalls are expected from Tuesday morning into Wednesday morning, and this could result in major roads and mountain passes being closed as well as loss of crops and livestock, and access to some remote communities being interrupted due to snowfall or icy roads.

Snow is possible on the high ground as low as 2000m in a number of areas that are reachable by normal vehicle, and parts of Lesotho will see heavy enough snow to make driving extremely challenging. Sani Pass may to see enough snow to make the road unusable at some point, and may be closed.

Areas in South Africa that will get snow on the high-ground include Barkly East, Rhodes and Matatiele in the Eastern Cape. In the Free State the high-ground around Clarens, Harrismith, Fouriesburg, Ficksburg and Memel will get snow and this may cause slippery road conditions, especially on the R712 which could be closed. The weather service warned that heavier snowfalls may occur over Phuthaditjhaba, where the community is advised to take the necessary precautions.

Snow is expected on the high-ground around Kokstad and most of the KZN Drakensberg. Temperatures are expected to drop significantly over the extreme western parts of KZN, (in the Harry Gwala, uMgungundlovu and uThukela district municipalities).

At this point the data is indicating that as much as 35cm of snow may fall in some areas at the highest elevations in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and especially in Lesotho. The snow is expected to begin falling late on Monday and will continue to fall periodically in places through to Thursday this week.

The map indicates where SnowReportSA is seeing the possibility of snow above the freezing level, but it may not fall in all of the areas shown on the map. Because the map can only contain so much detail, not all of the area indicating snow is above the freezing level.

While the snowfall at higher elevations is expected to be quite significant, changes in the freezing level might result in the snow melting quickly during warming periods.

Conditions may still change throughout this event, and in this case this forecast will be updated.

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